Well, I want to talk about how creativity should not be a competition today. This was something I ended up thinking about in mid-March when I realised that I was making better original art a year ago (which was posted here a couple of months ago) than I had during the weeks before preparing this article (to be posted here next July/August). The quality-drop was mostly due to a combination of: uninspired phases, occasional bad moods, my art journal being more meaningful, occasional rushed days and also focusing on various unpublished writing projects as well. And this isn’t something you’re supposed to say if you’re an artist online.
No, you’re “supposed” to relentlessly self-promote, to extol the virtues of your art, to be excited about the art you’re going to show your audience, to make cheerful smiling social media posts and to push this whole narrative of constant linear improvement. Something as basic as “some weeks are better than others” or even “some years are better than others” is probably utterly taboo to say out loud, to artists who have a certain mindset.
Whilst a lot of these attitudes can be traced back to the commercial side of art, writing or any form of creativity – where people have “personal brands” and focus on selling products (Yes, even the idea of “I’m always improving” is basically just “Invest in this stock…”) – I realised that the exact problem here isn’t capitalism itself… it’s the underlying attitude behind it. The idea that everything has to be competitive. That all of life is a competition where you’ve got to be “better than everyone else”.
And you can see this on social media, where there’s this constant competition for popularity – resulting in people focusing on creating “popular” things, on making “perfect” social media posts, using “clickbait” or whatever. The quality and variety and meaningfulness of social media suffers because, rather than being a place for self-expression, or a place that is free from the traditional commercial gatekeeping of publishers, galleries etc.. where all sorts of interesting creativity can flourish – it has become a popularity contest. A competition.
Yes, competition is good for some things. But not creativity.
Whilst I’m not really being “competitive” with my original art, it is something I make for an audience. And I’ve noticed that my art tends to be at its absolute best when I’m not making stuff for an audience. When I’m making introspective art journal paintings, writing fiction without thinking about publication or anything like that. There’s just this freedom and peace to it, a feeling of “I don’t have to worry about what anyone else thinks” and it results in more meaningful – and often better – creativity. Because I’m creating something that either has personal meaning or creating something because I enjoy the process of making it.
I can make weird comic panels about Neville Goddard (1905-72)-style mysticism, I can try to write the scariest and edgiest piece of horror fiction that I can write (and learn that, whilst I thrive when I blend horror with other genres, writing “pure” horror tends to take a lot of out of me emotionally), I can be a lot more introspective, I can be a bit more openly LGBT+, I can reference the surrounding culture a bit more etc… It’s really awesome 🙂 And absolutely none of it is “competitive” because I’m either not going to show it to an audience or – in the case of the horror fiction – I might eventually turn it into something “good enough for an audience” at some point.
Yes, there’s a middle-ground, My original art isn’t really meant to be “competitive” and neither is this blog. If I really wanted lots of views, I’d be learning how to make realistic digital art, I’d be on every major social media platform, I’d regularly sit in front of a camera, I’d be “spontaneous” and “charismatic” and a hundred other things that I’m not. Everything I create would closely adhere to current trends etc… And I’d feel absolutely terrible! Can you say that on the internet? Is it “advertiser-friendly”? Will it lose me views?
Optimising for competition is a different thing to creativity. Creativity, when it is at its best, doesn’t care about how popular it is. Creativity, at its best, is about the actual act of making things. It’s about turning an interesting idea into an actual tangible thing. It’s about expressing yourself. It’s about doing something that is meaningful to you. It’s not caring about “perfection” because you’re inspired enough that you really don’t care if there are a few mistakes – you just have to make this thing, even if it isn’t perfect.
On the other hand, optimising for competition is… Thousands of smiling, photogenic “influencers” being charismatic on the internet. It’s a generic CGI-filled superhero movie optimised to sell as many cinema tickets as possible. It’s a bland “AAA” videogame which is just different enough from the other games to make players interested, but similar enough not to rock the boat. It’s relentless “I am the best at this!!!!!111″ self-promotion. It’s pastels and “positive vibes”. It’s dull, inoffensive “PG-rated” media designed for mass appeal. It’s “popular music”. I could go on but I’m sure you get the idea.
Competition is good for some things. For example, an oligarchy of 4-5 large tech companies is a lot worse for customers, employees etc.. than 10-30 large tech companies who actually have to compete properly. Competition can be a good thing, but only in certain contexts. And creativity isn’t one of them.
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Anyway, I hope that this was interesting 🙂
